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FAILURE OF INITIATIVE TO REPATRIATE IMMIGRANTS
Kevin Reardon / 2009-12-28 19:45:35
The voluntary return scheme launched to repatriate immigrants by the central government a year ago was aimed at facilitating the return of unemployed immigrants to their countries of origin on the proviso that they were required not to return to Spain in three years.
At the time the government announced that some 20,000 jobless non-EU foreigners were eligible for the plan. In the Alicante province calculations amounted to 5,500 people. Eight months later, with data from 1 July, just 4300 immigrants have accepted the offer of the Government throughout the country. In the Alicante region, 248 have agreed to repatriation while in Valencia the number is 617.
The figures were provided in a parliamentary answer from the Government benches to the Congress of Deputies, reflected in a report by the Permanent Observatory of Immigration, at the University of Alicante. The author, Carlos Gómez Gil, describes the outcome of the plan as a "miserable failure".
The country with the worst take up of its citizens applying for repatriation requests is Morocco, surprisingly the nation from which the Alicante region expected to receive the largest number of applications when it announced its forecast in November 2008.
Of the 1771 immigrants who qualified for the offer the uptake was just one. Among the 11 nationalities of immigrants that did apply in Alicante, Ecuador has been the most numerous, with 145 people, representing 58% of all repatriations and, together with the 50 Colombian applicants, they amount to 78% of the returns in the province.
According to the sociologist and head of the study, Italy and France failed in similar efforts last year.
Caption: Immigrants outside the Campo de Mirra in Alicante.
Tags: Immigration
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